Turn on the television set, surf over to your favourite online news channel or pick up the local newspaper and you are bound to read or hear about the doom and gloom of the economy and the continuing financial chaos that goes along with it. What would happen though if you decided to tune all of that noise out and focus on what is going right? How would it change your career if you decided to look at life as an endless flow of opportunities coming your way? Once you realize that preparing for that next door to open is your best bet, how do you go about doing it? How do you prepare for opportunity before it even knocks?
For many successful professionals today, the first big step they take into that unknown realm of possibility is signing up for an Executive MBA. This is one action that shows your superiors, your colleagues and even your friends that you are optimistic enough about your future to invest both your time and money into preparing for what is ahead. According to Bernie Zanck, Director of Recruitment and Admissions at the Chicago Booth Executive MBA program, “Our approach to business education prepares our students for all possibilities. Graduates leave equipped with a mastery of business fundamentals and a global network of friends and colleagues. They emerge with a new way of interpreting the world now and beyond, transforming how they think, how they network and how they impact.”
Have a plan
Setting yourself up for professional success isn’t something that happens overnight. Most high-level executives will tell you they took the time to plan out their path. Sure, they may have gotten a lucky break or two along the way but as Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favours the prepared mind”. Joan Coonrod, Assistant Dean of Executive MBA admissions and marketing at Emory University’s, Goizueta Business School agrees, “You must prepare yourself for a life-long career, and build career resilience into your planning. It’s not just about moving up-it’s about moving laterally when necessary and building a wide enough “base of value” to make you more marketable. You need to be able to navigate the uncertainty that has become a contestant in high level careers.”
Establishing the roadmap to where you want to go and then taking small steps in that direction on a daily basis is essential for creating opportunities. As Francis Petit, Associate Dean for Executive MBA Programs at Fordham University, Graduate School of Business Administration sees it, “I strongly believe that individuals do not spend enough time planning for their future. We live in a "wired" world in which all of our stakeholders want instant responses and gratification. Everything in our lives has moved into the "priority pile". However, planning takes not only time to strategize but also time to reflect. If only individuals spent a few minutes a day thinking about their goals and also thinking on what they have done today to move closer to those goals. If that were to happen, I think many individuals would have more achievements in their lives.”
Opportunity disguised as change
Best made plans can sometimes be thrown off course by the winds of change though. What is the best way to deal with sudden, unexpected and seemingly unwelcomed circumstances? According to Hannelore Forssbohm, Senior Program Manager of the Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA program, “Opportunities are a matter of attitude: it could be change that may not initially be perceived positive (e.g. reorganization within a company); discovering, developing and implementing a new business idea; changing your line of work or personal interest. These all are “opportunities” in one way or another; a chance to make a change, for the better, for oneself, the company or, in some cases, the world. Being ready and courageous enough to absorb and act in a new situation is one way that an Executive MBA can help to prepare today’s managers to be in a position to face and manage whatever comes their way.”
Even when change comes in the form of a crisis, favorable outcomes can still occur. As Dean Coonrod points out, “In 2001, it was the tech/telecom bust – over half a million jobs in those sectors gone. In 2008-09, it was real estate and financial services sectors that shed jobs. Preparing for opportunities means being able to move to where the opportunities are regardless of your current industry expertise.”
The aftermath of a crisis can be a bit like a forest after a sweeping fire, new growth will begin. Stephen Adamson, Associate Director of Admissions, for IE Business School’s International Executive MBA suggests that “Preparing for opportunities in this context means being ready to take advantage of the burst of hiring and growth which will occur as the crisis eases. As has always occurred, a huge number of corporate and entrepreneurial opportunities will be created and deciding to take an EMBA once things improve may be too late.”
Broaden your horizons
Perhaps the real question then is where to look for these opportunities that are sure to show up. Maria Puig, Executive Director of the IESE Global Executive MBA believes that, “In our time, many business opportunities are appearing at a global scale. Our Global Executive MBA Program helps you develop your global mindset and acquire the additional skills needed to succeed in today's increasingly globalized and competitive business. Our participants say that they feel better equipped to identify business opportunities and to take the necessary decisions to make these opportunities valuable for them.”
As you see these opportunities appearing, you may find that your current skills will not be enough to take you to where your next possible steps lie. Cristèle Fernand Admissions Director at the EMLYON Business School believes that “developing new skills (both technical and behavioural), enlarging your network and being able to think out of the box” are essential components of broadening your career path. Not so coincidentally, these three elements are all benefits of participating in an Executive MBA program.
Though traditionally created to help executives get the necessary training to work better and smarter in their current positions, today’s EMBA also focuses on preparing participants for the constantly changing landscape of modern business. Dean Petit adds that “the EMBA is a great vehicle for careers beyond management in the Fortune 500. It allows you to think differently about creating, delivering and sustaining value within any industry. Such a mindset can be very powerful.” And very valuable when considering what else is possible.
Invest in yourselfIt comes down to thinking about your future and how you can best invest in it. Director Zanck affirms “the Executive MBA is a transformative experience and an investment in the future of one of your organisation’s greatest assets – you. Investing in your education will prepare you to become a more effective leader and equip you to analyze and solve complex business challenges because you’ve been taught to approach them.”
Beate Baldwin, Program Director for the ESSEC & MANNHEIM Executive MBA, agrees “[pursuing an EMBA] means taking an active part in your career as well as in your personal development.” She also advises to take full advantage of the EMBA networking opportunities. “Conferences with alumni associations, courses with academics and business leaders, social events with Executive MBA tracks at partner schools, leadership courses, and individual and group coaching sessions, all help our participants to get to more self and social awareness and to grow personally.”
In the end, an Executive MBA is the ultimate prep course for opportunity. Perhaps Dean Petit sums it up best when he says, “Students will learn just as much if not more on how to survive and excel in "the process" in addition to the content of a program. Surviving the process is a learning experience in and of itself. Learning how to take on these risks will allow candidates to grow and be ready for future professional challenges and opportunities. Behind every great success story in business usually lies a big initial risk. Imagine if the founders of Facebook or Starbucks or Cirque de Soleil weren't brave enough to take the risks? That is what it is all about!”
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